Ski jumpers try to restart

But last year the results suddenly stopped. The harmony in the team was no longer there, there were just more arguments and so the association decided to take drastic measures and simply dissolved the women's national team in May of this year. The contract with head coach Julien Eybert-Guillon has been terminated. For the two top jumpers Elena Runggaldier and Evelyn Insam, this meant that they could only have prepared for the winter with the coaches of their sports group (Finanzwache). “That was a tough decision. “I don’t think anything like this has ever happened before,” Runggaldier looks back.

Evelyn Insam trains privately in France Evelyn Insam did not accept this decision, quit her job at the financial guard and moved to France to live with Julien Eybert-Guillon. The Frenchman became her private trainer. With the dissolution of the national team, women's ski jumping in Italy risked disappearing. Romed Moroder, the actual father of the Val Gardena ski jumpers' successes, also noticed this. After tough negotiations with the association, he convinced FISI President Flavio Roda and sports director Sandro Pertile in September to field a national team again. And he immediately brought in the best trainer, the Austrian Janko Zwitter, who also looks after the strongest ski jumper in the world, the Japanese Sara Takanashi. The 19-year-old is a five-time junior world champion, has won the overall World Cup twice, the Summer Grand Prix four times and has celebrated a total of 30 individual World Cup victories to date. “I've been trying to convince him to come to Italy for the last two or three years. Unfortunately, it always failed because of the association. Now it has finally worked and I am convinced that we can still achieve a lot in the future,” says Moroder.

Five athletes in the national team Moroder and Zwitter brought five female ski jumpers into the Italian national team for this winter. Elena Runggaldier, the oldest in the squad at 25, the sisters Manuela and Lara Malsiner and the only non-Gardenian Veronica Gianmoena from Trentino have been training with the new coaching team for a month. There is also Evelyn Insam, who continues to train with Julien Eybert-Guillon, but will join the national team at the World Cup events. Zwitter and Moroder are convinced that this is the right path. “The door always remains open for Evelyn. She wants to go her own way and we have accepted that. There is no argument, we just need a little time now to grow together again into a unified team,” Moroder is convinced. Zwitter sees it pragmatically: “We already had a similar situation with Sara (Takanashi) and the Japanese association and we were able to clarify that too. I’m looking forward to Evelyn, she will definitely help us.”

Janko Zwitter believes in surprise The World Cup starts this year on December 4th in Lillehammer. A total of 19 dates are on the program, more than ever before. Janko Zwitter is going into the new season very confidently. “I'm leaning way out of the window. Although our results vary between good and not good, there is great potential in this team. We have made some technical changes that our jumpers have to process first. Nevertheless, I believe that we can cause big surprises this year.” Elena Runggaldier, the most experienced jumper in the team with a total of 51 World Cup appearances, is a little more cautious. “Not everything is right yet, but the shape curve is pointing upwards. Now the head is clear, I hope that the results will come soon.”

The Junior World Championships are the Malsiner sisters' big goal This year, 17-year-old Manuela Malsiner wants to try to get back into international competition after a long break from competition (fall in planica and torn cruciate ligament). Her big goal for the season is the Junior World Championships at the end of February in Rasnov, Romania. Her sister Lara, who is two years younger, also wants to be at the forefront here and at the Youth Olympic Games. Lara Malsiner is training with the national team for the first time this year after she achieved good results in the Alpine Cup last year. And she is self-confident: “I would like to take part in these two major events jump into the top five.”

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Ski jumpers try to restart

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